The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) has established itself as the world’s most widely used framework for sustainability reporting. Among its key components, the Environmental Standards series – GRI 301 to GRI 308 – guides how organizations should measure and report their environmental impacts. One of the most transformative updates in this series is the replacement of GRI 304 Biodiversity (2016) with the more advanced GRI 101 Biodiversity (2024).
This change is part of an international push to improve biodiversity disclosures in line with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the 2050 Vision for Biodiversity. GRI 101 will become mandatory for all organizations reporting under the GRI framework starting January 1, 2026, although companies may adopt it voluntarily in 2025.
Let’s look at this transition in detail.
About the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is an independent, international organization that helps businesses, governments, and other entities take responsibility for their economic, environmental, and social impacts. GRI provides the world’s most widely used sustainability reporting standards, offering a global common language for organizations to communicate their impacts transparently and comparably.
Headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, GRI operates through a network of strategically located regional offices in Johannesburg (Africa), Singapore (ASEAN), Bogotá (Latin America), and New Delhi (South Asia), ensuring localized support and engagement across over 100 countries.
As confirmed by KPMG’s 2024 global research, the GRI Standards continue to be the most extensively adopted sustainability reporting framework, used by over 14,000 organizations worldwide. These standards enable stakeholders – ranging from investors and policymakers to civil society and labor organizations – to make informed decisions and take action that promotes global sustainability.
GRI’s mission is driven by a commitment to multi-stakeholder governance, ensuring that all standards and initiatives serve the public interest. Its governance bodies include representatives from diverse sectors and global regions, and the organization itself maintains transparency through its own annual sustainability and financial disclosures.
By facilitating high-quality, comparable, and impact-focused sustainability reporting, GRI is supporting decision-makers and institutions in creating long-term economic, environmental, and social value.
From GRI 304 to GRI 101 Biodiversity Reporting
The transition from GRI 304 to GRI 101 Biodiversity is nothing else but a a paradigm shift – from tracking where biodiversity impacts occur, to understanding how those impacts are managed, mitigated, and disclosed in detail. The new structure demands both geospatial precision and impact-based accountability.
Core changes in GRI 101 Biodiversity reporting include:
- Disclosure 101-1: Requires organizations to publish biodiversity-related policies and their alignment with international targets such as the GBF 2030.
- Disclosure 101-2: Introduces the mitigation hierarchy – Avoid, Minimize, Restore, Offset – and asks for disclosure of outcomes across this sequence.
- Disclosure 101-3: Mandates transparency in benefit-sharing agreements involving the use of genetic resources, as called for under the Nagoya Protocol.
- Disclosures 101-4 to 101-6: Require detailed information on ecosystem conversion, pollution, species use, and site-specific ecological degradation.
Example: How GRI 101 Biodiversity Applies to a Real-World Business Case
Consider a multinational cosmetics company sourcing plant-based ingredients from Amazonian rainforests:
- Location-based impact: Under Disclosure 101-5, the company must report the total area of rainforest it has impacted, including whether this land falls within a recognized biodiversity hotspot.
- Restoration and mitigation: It must show mitigation efforts such as native reforestation, ecosystem restoration, or conservation offsets.
- Genetic resource equity: If the company uses traditional plant knowledge from local communities, it must disclose benefit-sharing agreements under Disclosure 101-3—demonstrating compliance with SDG Target 15.6.
- Pollution and risk: It must report pollutant emissions, habitat fragmentation, or unsustainable water use as part of Disclosures 101-4 and 101-6.
This approach transforms reporting from an exercise in visibility to one of measurable impact reduction and ethical compliance.
Aligning GRI 101 with the SDGs
GRI 101 explicitly supports the following Sustainable Development Goals:
- SDG 15: Life on Land – through habitat protection and anti-deforestation measures
- SDG 14: Life Below Water – by reducing terrestrial activities that harm marine biodiversity
- SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production – via transparency in supply chain impacts and benefit-sharing
It also supports SDG Target 15.9, which integrates biodiversity values into national and corporate planning, and Target 15.6, which promotes fair and equitable benefit-sharing.
By making these connections traceable and reportable, GRI 101 ensures that corporate sustainability is not a matter of policy rhetoric, but of data-backed responsibility.
Reporting Timeline and Compliance
| Year | Reporting Options |
|---|---|
| 2025 | Voluntary use of GRI 101 |
| 2026 onward | Mandatory use of GRI 101 |
Organizations using the GRI Standards must prepare for this transition by upgrading data systems, conducting biodiversity risk assessments, and ensuring internal capacity to meet these more detailed disclosure requirements.
The move from GRI 304:2016 to GRI 101:2024 represents a new era of science-aligned, equity-aware, and geographically specific biodiversity reporting. For companies operating in sensitive ecological zones or handling biodiversity-dependent products, early compliance is not just a regulatory obligation – instead it is an opportunity to demonstrate leadership in environmental stewardship and sustainability governance.
